← Security camera installation bid calculator
There is no flat per-camera price, because the same eight-camera job can be two very different labor tickets. Eight cameras through an accessible attic is one job. Eight through masonry with a lift, longer runs, and a switch that has to be sized for the PoE load is several times the labor — before either quote has priced the storage the customer is actually paying for.
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Access and construction type. Accessible attic runs and masonry runs with a lift are not the same drop labor, even at the same cable length.
Storage math. Eight 4 MP cameras on H.265, recording continuously, use roughly 0.35 TB per day — about 10.4 TB for 30 days of retention before usable-space headroom. Quoting "30 days of storage" without doing that math is quoting a number the drives may not actually hold.
PoE budget and run length. A switch has a wattage budget the cameras have to fit inside, and Ethernet has a hard run-length limit. Both are pass/fail checks a per-camera price skips entirely.
The calculator does that arithmetic in your browser. It is not an ONVIF profile, a manufacturer specification, or a building, fire, or privacy-law ruling — bitrates are typical planning figures at 15 fps, not a guarantee any camera hits them.
Eight 4 MP cameras on H.265, recording continuously for a 30-day retention target, need roughly 10.4 TB before usable-space headroom — a number many quotes skip entirely in favor of "whatever drive comes with the NVR." Separately, the actual drives a customer is willing to pay for may deliver fewer retention days than promised, and a switch sized for eight cameras' PoE draw is a different bill of materials than one sized for four. The calculator checks storage, PoE budget, and run length together, so the gap between "30 days quoted" and "30 days delivered" doesn't surface at the handover.
There is no flat per-camera price. Eight cameras through an accessible attic is a different job from eight through masonry with a lift. This calculator prices the drops, the cable, the head end, and the labour from your own wage, burden, overhead, and margin, and gives a walk-away price to hold when a customer asks you to match a lower bid.
It depends on resolution, codec, camera count, and hours recorded per day. Eight 4 MP cameras on H.265 recording continuously use about 0.35 TB per day, so 30 days needs roughly 10.4 TB before usable-space headroom. This calculator computes it and, separately, the retention the drives you actually buy will deliver — those are different numbers, and the gap is where a handover fails.
No. Outputs are arithmetic on the numbers you enter. Bitrates are typical planning figures at 15 fps, not a guarantee any camera hits them — a scene full of moving foliage will exceed them. Nothing here is an ONVIF profile, a manufacturer specification, or a building, fire, or privacy-law ruling.